Tuesday, May 1, 2018

A short trip to Florida

*posted months later on 10/26, but backdated -- never got around to adding pics*

Last month, we traveled to St. Pete Beach and Tampa for our friend Shawna's wedding. We flew down 2 days early to make a mini-vacation of it. I wasn't too nervous about the flight since Haddie is a pretty mild-mannered baby and my suspicions were right! She was such an angel on the flight. We had a bit of a first-time parents moment when we were trying to board the plane, though. I bought bags to protect the stroller and car seat, but the stroller one didn't fit. Haddie was screaming in her Ergo carrier and I was fumbling with the diaper bag and carseat while Bill was trying to get the stroller in. It was a disaster, but eventually we just gave up on the stroller and checked it without a bag -- it turned out fine.

We headed to the car rental to pick up our car and... we didn't fit! We were too tall! Minivans were the same price, so we rented one of those and it was actually amazing to have so much room. We later had to get the van replaced because it wouldn't lock, but that was a frustrating story that's not even worth telling. We headed to the hotel where the wedding was to be held which was a cute surfing-themed beachside inn. I felt like Goldilocks when we checked in. Our first room smelled like dog and bleach, our second room smelled like varnish, and our third room was juuuuust right. I felt like such an irritant, but there was no way I was letting my tiny baby inhale potentially dangerous fumes!

Once we were all checked in and set up, we grabbed a quick lunch at a little pub where I got a surprisingly good quinoa bowl. Then we headed to the beach for a walk along the beach. Every time the wind blew on her face, it took Haddie's breath away which was cute for a few times but I started to get nervous it was bad for her so we covered her up. It was fun to show her the ocean for the first time! After our walk, we chilled in the room while Haddie napped and then headed to dinner. We went to Snapper's. Haddie was a little fussy so I ended up nursing her during dinner, was a first for me. Our food was good but I can't even remember what I got! We called it a night early and got some sleep.

The next day, I headed down to the beach for an hour or so to catch some sun. I wore a two-piece but my body is not quite ready for that! I read my book and soaked up some rays and got in the water a few times -- it was really nice! We had lunch and then we went down to the beach as a family. Haddie was not a fan of the water, nor was she a fan of laying in the little beach tent that we got her. She enjoyed being held while we stood in the water, though, so that worked for us! We took some cute family pics by the water and then I took a sweet one of her with Bill. I asked him to take one of me and her and she promptly spit up all over me. I will spare you the photo, but it was hilarious and so fitting because of course dad gets the cute photo, lol. That night we had a pre-party before the wedding. We made a brief appearance because Haddie got tired, plus I don't like to stay up too late these days.

In the morning, we checked out of the hotel (even though that's where the wedding was later that day) and drove to Tampa to my second-cousins Bill & Gail's house so that we could leave Haddie with them. Their son and his wife and baby were there as well and my second-cousins Marty & Tom also drove up from Ft. Myers to meet her! She had quite a team watching her so even though we were nervous to leave her for the first time, we knew that she was in good hands. We had a cookout for lunch and hung out with everyone until it was time to get ready for the wedding and we went back to the hotel.

The wedding was outside and it was gorgeous! Everything took place outside -- the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, and the reception! I've never been to a totally outdoors wedding and I really enjoyed it. We were seated at a table with mostly other young parents, but also some people from Dayton (Shawna used to be stationed at Wright-Patt). We had a really nice time, but called it a night early because we were dying to get back to Haddie! We came home to a happy spoiled baby and were able to catch up with the fam before going to bed.

We were supposed to go to visit Bill's grandparents on Sunday, but they weren't up for it which meant that we had the whole day to hang out with my family in Tampa. We walked along the bay, did laundry, took a nap during a thunderstorm (there were actually tornado warnings which was kind of crazy for Florida), cooked some pizza, and headed to the airport early only to find that our flight was delayed.

We experienced a lot of turbulence on our flight home, so it wasn't as good as Haddie's first flight. I was pretty queasy so I can't imagine that she felt great. It was the bumpiest flight Bill had ever had. I was glad when we landed safely!

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